this is a couple of examples of the problems that I'm having such a hard time on. My teacher makes it sound way too hard when I know It's probably not?
But It's been a long time since I did anything remotely like this, some of It they didn't even teach me in high school? Please show the steps also!


1. 0.5 (1.2x-3.4) + -1.4x + 5.8


2. 1/4 (x+3) + 4x - 2 (x-3)


Thanks,
Beth

For any distributive problem, you simply multiply what's on the outside of the parentheses by each of the terms inside.

So, if you have:

4 ( 3 + x )

The answer is simply:

4 * 3 + 4 * x
12 + 4x

You can check the logic on this with a problem using only constants:

4 ( 3 + 2 )

4 * 3 + 4 * 2
12 + 8
20

Which is the same answer as you get if you had done the parentheses first.

Hope this helps :)